The Half-Life Store

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Tweezer's Half-Life Health Club presents...
Our buyer's guide to different Half-Life product versions will help
you find the right one. We show you some other products that will
improve your game performance.

Visit the rest of Tweezer's
Half-Life Health Club. Click on the links below...

A 5-button mouse with wheel can give you a real advantage in Half-Life. Pictured above is the
IntelliMouse Optical
by Microsoft, the favored choice of Tweezer's
Half-Life Health Club. Optical mice track better, with no
ball or rollers to gum up. The Intellimouse Optical retails for
$55.

Some may prefer the Intellimouse Explorer, which has a different button
arrangement. It lists for $20 more, but actually cost only about
$6 more when I checked PCMall.com.
Personally I prefer the Intellimouse Optical.

Here's the scoop about sharing CD Keys: for LAN games, up to 5 players
can share a CD Key. But for internet games the CD Key cannot
be shared.

The CD Key is just a code number that comes with each Half-Life
CD. When you start an internet game, your CD Key is checked against
the central registry to ensure that only one copy of the CD Key
can be in use at a time.

This is why you should save those old Half-Life CDs! Did you get
a Platinum Edition for your birthday? That's great, but you can
still use the CD Key on your old "orange" disc next time
you want a friend or family member to join a net game.

Donations help support this site.

How to Buy Half-Life

It can be more than a little confusing... A recent search turned
up no fewer than eight separate Half-Life software products.
But most of these are obsolescent packages. With a little explanation,
you can soon become an expert and amaze your friends...

To the left is the original Half-Life cover. Note that these original
discs are still perfectly usable because the game software
can be updated at no charge and the discs include a valid CD Key.

Different Games Called "Half-Life"

The first question to sort out is really "What is Half-Life?"
Half-Life consists of several different games, plus dozens of "mods",
most of which we won't go into.

Original Recipe

The original Half-Life is a single player game with a cunning plot
line and superb execution. The basic Half-Life game also includes
extensive support for multiplayer action over a LAN or the internet.
The two standard multiplayer modes are "deathmatch" and
"HL Teamplay". Since the multi player and single player
modes are bundled together, we'll just call them "Half-Life".

Game
of the Year Edition

From mid-1999 until late 2000, the standard version of the original
game was sold as the Half-Life: Game of the Year Edition.
This included a separate, but related, team game called Team
Fortress Classic.

Since the original game can be fully updated at no cost, and TFC
can be downloaded, owners of the original disc can obtain all the
material in the Game of the Year Edition. And since even the Game
of the Year Edition must be updated in order to play internet games,
it really didn't matter which one you start with.

The Game of the Year Edition has been superceded by the Half-Life:
Adrenaline Pack (see below).

Half-Life: Opposing Force

Opposing Force (OpFor) is a single-player sequel to the
original Half-Life game. It is often called an "expansion pack".
I'm not sure, but I think you must buy the original game in order
to install OpFor. It is not available as a free download
or upgrade. If you want to play it, you have to buy it.

Opposing Force is no longer being distributed as a separate box.
Instead it has been bundled with the regular game as the Half-Life:
Adrenaline Pack (see below).

Half-Life:
Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike (CS) is a very popular Half-Life
mod, meaning that it is a new game built using the Half-Life
infrastructure. Early versions of CS were available as free downloads,
but the final release in 2000 must be purchased.

Counter-Strike is a multi player game, and the number of internet
servers devoted to it have really taken off. If you are reading
this web site, then you should probably get CS if you haven't already.

Gunman Chronicles

Gunman Chronicles is another mod, released in 2000.
It's been described as "a story-driven first-person game powered
by the Half-Life engine. Players take the role of a futuristic gunman
with a mission to destroy the alien Xenomes that mysteriously began
appearing five years earlier." Includes both single- and multi-player
games.

Half-Life Bundles

If you are buying Half-Life for the first time (or as a gift),
you'll get the most for your money with one of these "bundles".

The Half-Life:
Adrenaline Pack combines the contents of the Game of the
Year Edition and Opposing Force. I believe the Game of the Year
Edition has been discontinued, since the Adrenaline Pack sells for
the same price. Until recently, the standard

The Big Tweeze
recommends the Half-Life:
Platinum Edition, which adds Counter-Strike to the Adrenaline
Pack. This gives you everything except Gunman Chronicles
at a reasonable price. If you want CS and the basic game,
even if you don't care about OpFor, this is the way to go.

Jasc
Paint Shop Pro

Paint Shop Pro (PSP) is probably the most widely used raster graphics
editor within the Half-Life community. For example, our tutorial
on how to create personal logos uses PSP.
The latest version is PSP7, which I have also used extensively for
digital photo correction and enhancement. It comes with a tool called
Animation Shop which I've also used a great deal. If you browse
the Photo Albums on my home page you'll see many examples of images
and animation done using PSP6 and 7.

Click
here to buy PSP7. If you buy from Beyond.com, Paint Shop Pro can be downloaded for immediate use.
That's how I got my original copy.

Tweezer's Half-Life Health Club provides
retailer links for products of interest to Half-Life gamers. The
merchants we have chosen have three things in common: they have
earned a good reputation, they offer low prices, and their web sites
are easy to navigate.

Chumbo.com is a software vendor with a great selection
of Half-Life programs.

Beyond.com
is one of the largest on-line shopping sites. Their service is exceptional.

Half-Life isn't free; you need to buy it. Internet play requires a CD
Key number, which only comes with a Half-Life CD. You can't really
share CD Keys because they are authenticated before you begin an internet
game.